Before You Approach a Foundation
Do your homework. Research foundations. Read their guidelines, and stay current, as they change over time, with new board members or shifts in mission. The guidelines will often detail what the foundation does and does not support. The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, for example, will not invite a college to apply for a grant if that college’s president has been in office less than a year.
Focus one person on foundations. If you can, structure your development office so that one person concentrates on this work. That person can keep up on guidelines, look for opportunities to meet foundation officers, and lead the stewardship of grants. Nancy J. Cable, who worked in senior administration posts at several colleges and is now president of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, says, “It’s worth paying staff to do that. It increases your chances of getting grant funding.”
Landing a grant involves patience, persistence, and a lot of back and forth to hone an idea until it aligns with both sides’ missions and goals.
Think strategically. Decide which foundations would be a good match for your institutional mission. At Davidson College, Patricia Massey Hoke, director of corporate and foundation relations, is part of a strategic-partnership group that includes the president of the college, the director of innovation and entrepreneurship, the vice president for strategic partnerships, the executive director of career development, the chief communications and marketing officer, and the associate vice president of campus and community relations. Together they consider which foundations the college should pursue, based on their institutional goals.
After You’ve Made Contact
Approach each foundation as a unique entity. Find out how its grant makers want to be approached. Do they accept phone calls or emails to discuss possible projects? Or do they only have contact with colleges they choose to approach? Do they want to speak with the college president, or is a development officer OK? Ms. Hoke asks colleagues at peer institutions for insight about foundations she has not worked with before.
Look for opportunities to meet foundation representatives. Foundations that support higher education often tap into the wider conversations about college issues, and can be found at conferences. They may even host their own. Look for local events where foundations are a sponsor or are being honored. You can also see if any of your board members know people at foundations and could arrange an introduction.
Be prepared. When you do have the chance to speak with foundation representatives, be able to talk with them about the specifics of their organization’s areas of support and interest, says Sean Buffington, vice president of the Henry Luce Foundation and a former college president. How do your ideas fit with theirs? Don’t waste time by pitching five ideas that have nothing to do with the areas they work in.
Invite foundation officials to your campus. If appropriate, have them talk with students. Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Los Angeles City College Foundation, calls that “the magic ingredient.” No presentation or data he can share compare with the compelling stories from students whose lives are improved by foundation support. He says foundation officials tend to say, “I get what you’re doing here. What can we do to help?”
When You’re Working With an Idea
Think big. The bigger foundations, especially, want to work with ideas that will move the needle on the stickier issues of higher education and the wider world, where finding solutions will improve the lives of many.
Do something new. Foundations have finite resources, and they don’t want to duplicate efforts already under way, says Molly Martin, director of the office of the president and organizational development at the Lumina Foundation. One way to do this is to study the grants a foundation has already given, which is information usually available on a website. That can tell you what areas a foundation is interested in, too.
Consider collaboration. Some foundations, including Lumina, are interested in supporting projects in which several institutions are collaborating That helps expand the reach of ideas that work.
Have data to back up your ideas. Walter M. Kimbrough, president of Dillard University, says he has opened doors to foundations when he presents his data on closing gaps in graduation rates and retention of minority and low-income students at the historically black college he leads. That has happened with board presentations, when a board member has suggested that a family foundation might be interested after seeing data on what the university has achieved in retaining and graduating different groups of students.
Be open. Expect negotiation over details. Rarely are grants accepted that don’t include some adjustment on either side. This could include the length or scope of a project, or even bringing in another institution to collaborate.
After You’ve Received a Grant (or Been Turned Down)
Stay in contact. Circle back to foundations your college received grants from in the past. Mr. Kimbrough, when he started at Dillard, did that with foundations that had given the university money after Hurricane Katrina. Staying in touch helps keep the door open for future grants. You can also stay connected if your college’s grant application is turned down. Ask if the foundation would be open to continuing a conversation. Ask what your institution could do better next time.